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Standalone Sunday | The Art of Feeling

Standalone Sunday is a weekly feature created by Megan @ BookslayerReads to spotlight a standalone novel that you loved and would want to recommend. Be sure to check out her blog and original post by clicking on the link above!

Synopsis from Edelweiss:

Perfect for fans of Jennifer Niven’s New York Times bestseller All the Bright Places, this contemporary YA novel explores the friendship between a girl in constant pain and a boy who feels nothing at all.

Since the car accident, Samantha Herring has been in pain, not only from her leg injury, but also from her mother’s death, which has devastated her family. After pushing away her friends, Sam has receded into a fog of depression.

But then Sam meets Eliot, a reckless loner with an attitude and an amazing secret—he can’t feel any pain. At first, Sam is jealous. But then she learns more about his medical condition…and his self-destructive tendencies. In fact, Eliot doesn’t seem to care about anything at all—except maybe Sam. As they grow closer, they begin to confront Sam’s painful memories of the accident—memories that may hold a startling truth about what really happened that day.

My Experience: I started reading The Art of Feeling on 5/15/17 and finished it on 5/16/17. I enjoyed reading this book a lot. I love the quirky humor. I love the main character and her family. I enjoy the friendship story. I like how intelligent Eliot is and his views on people. I like how pain and no pain is being dissected in this book. The plot is interesting and the characters are excellent! So many great advices in this book! “People waste their lives trying to find the right thing to say.” 12%, “The best way to move on is to move.” 53% and “Don’t hang your life on wishes that won’t come true.” 92% are my favorites. I find myself highlighting this ebook in so many places.

“There will always be a million things I don’t know about you. But I know the important stuff, namely that you’re the right kind of person for me, and slowly finding out more little things is the fun part, because I know it won’t change how I feel. Maybe I won’t be crazy about everything I find out, but the important stuff is worth that.” 64%

In this book, readers will follow the point of view of Samantha (Sam) Herring, a high school senior who is at the lowest points in her life where she survived an auto accident, pushed away all of her friends to deal with the loss of her mom in seclusion, and hobbled around in crutches filled with a lot of pain to her leg. Her family: Dad, brother Rex, sister Lena, and dog Tito all deals with loss in their own different ways. Their lives are surrounded by Before Mom Died (MBD) and Since Mom Died (SMD). On the other hand, Eliot Rowe, a fellow senior at the high school, who is born with a medical condition known as “congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis”, meaning he doesn’t feel pain. He moves school often and never had a friend. He’s a bully magnet because he bluntly says things that makes people mad. Since he doesn’t feel pain, he stands there and let people hit him. When people hit him and he doesn’t show a reaction to pain, people feel angry and hit him more. Sam happens to rescue him at one of his beatings and Eliot insulted her. They became friends, two broken souls, figuring out how to be normal human.

“If you refuse to give people the chance to be something different, you’re the one who stays stupid and shallow, stunted forever, unable to comprehend the depth of anyone else.” 81%

I lose sleep over this book because I couldn’t put it down. All of the characters in this book, including supporting characters, have flaws. I love that each character is well developed and how they overcome/recognize their flaws. I truly love the humor in this book. I love the concept of owning things secondhand. I love Rex’s over-protectiveness of Sam and her dating life. Eliot and his psychoanalyzing is fascinating to read. I love Lena’s positive future outlook. I love the ending and how everything comes together so perfectly. I highly recommend this book to everyone! It’s definitely a re-read for me! (Full Review HERE).

I rated it 5 stars! This book won’t be published until 8/15/2017. You can pre-order it at Amazon or Book Depository or try your luck for an ARC! I highly recommend everyone to read it. I’m looking forward to see what you think of it 🙂

That really is a very unique and original idea to write a novel about. If there is one thing I like in both novels, movies or tv series it is well developed characters. Without those it would just become an empty story. Great that you enjoyed this novel so much. It really shines through in your well written review 😊

About Me

Hi! Thanks for taking the time to read about me. I create this blog to gush over books I love and to connect with other book lovers. As always, too many books, too little time. Time need to freeze so that I can read more books! :-)